Cairo: Finding its own way in waste collection

For decades, much of Cairo’s waste has been resourcefully collected and reused by a poor working class known as the Zabbaleen. After a failed attempt to modernise and sanitize this system by bringing in foreign waste-collecting companies, some major advantages to developing a sustainable, economically logical and uniquely Cairo waste-collecting system have become clear.

Since the 1950's, a group of lower class garbage collectors
known as the Zabbaleen have wandered the city of Cairo, Egypt,
using donkey carts to pick up waste left on the streets. After
bringing this waste to their homes that collectively make up
Cairo's "garbage city" the waste it is sorted and eventually turned
into quilts, rugs, pots, paper, livestock food, compost, recycled
plastic products such as clothes hangers, and much more. Reusing
and recycling about 85% of all waste that they collect, the
Zabbaleen have far surpassed the efficiencies of even the best
Western recycling schemes, which, under optimal conditions, have
only been able to reuse 70% of all material.

However, in 2003, the Egyptian government announced plans to
"modernise" the waste collection system, bringing in three European
Companies. Their reasoning was that the Zabbaleen, combined with
the government's present waste management system, were only able to
collect about 60% of all city waste (40% collected by Zabbaleen and
20% by the government). In addition to being unable to meet the
growing waste collection demand, the existing system was also
detested for its aesthetic problems in wealthy and tourist-visited
areas that were losing commercial opportunities to donkey carts and
smells of rotting dung. Finally, the government argued that the
Zabbaleen practises were backward and unsanitary, pointing to the
abundance of disease and hepatitis in their communities resulting
from hand-sorting rubbish with sharp metal, broken glass, and
hospital waste such as syringes.

While all of these arguments were mostly true, the new
"modernised" waste collection system still managed to collapse
after its first year of operation. It seems the primary reason for
this was a failure to compete with or hire the Zabbaleen as
collectors, offering them a maximum of only $1 USD a day; a wage
which could easily be doubled using the existing donkey cart,
sorting and selling system. Also, since it is almost impossible to
recycle garbage after it is compressed by a western collection
truck, the European companies were only able to recycle about 20%
of all waste. In this sense, the profit they were generating from
their government salary and sale of recyclables was far surpassed
by that which the Zabbaleen were obtaining by simply selling and
re-selling products made from many different kinds of waste.

Now, with streets again filled with rubbish and a government
that is $50 million USD poorer, Cairo seems to be realising that a
new waste collection system must include the Zabbaleen and must
have a percentage of recycled waste closer to that which the
Zabbaleen achieve. Ultimately, it seems that the answer lies not in
the adoption of a foreign system but in the pioneering of a novel
solution that is sustainable, economically logical, and unique to
Cairo. Recent proposals suggest the use of government-funded
collection vehicles that do not compact waste and are operated by
presently unemployed citizens. These vehicles collect garbage from
citizens who have sorted their rubbish into organic and inorganic
categories. Inorganic waste is brought to sorting facilities where
the Zabbaleen can manually sort through it more efficiently (and
perhaps more safely) in order to recycle and reuse as much waste as
possible using the production methods presently in place. Organic
waste goes to government composting plants that ensure it is not
fed to smelly disease-carrying livestock in the city.

Cairo's waste management story is not just a living testament to
the value in rubbish and the money that can be made in
waste-sorting. It is also yet another example of how sustainability
often requires us to assess our individual unique situation and not
simply resort to importing solutions that have worked
elsewhere.

Zabbaleen History

Over the many decades that the Zabbaleen have lived in Cairo,
their lifestyle and living conditions have greatly improved. With
the help of a technical assistance group, the local government, and
international donors such as the International Development
Association of the World Bank, the Zabbaleen have been able to
invest in technologies such as plastic shredders and cloth looms to
produce usable products and turn a profit. Also, many young
Zabbaleen have learned how to recycle high tech goods, selling
usable electronic parts back to their original companies.
Accordingly, despite being a religious minority and initially
detested within Cairo, they have developed a symbiotic relationship
with the city that, today, many inhabitants are unwilling to part
with.

Key Learning Points >

There is a huge value in trash that has not been compressed by typical western waste-collecting vehicles. The Zabbaleen of Cairo have found ways to re-use 85% of the uncompressed rubbish they collect.

In some areas where trash is hand-sorted, typical western waste collecting companies cannot successfully compete because they are not able to make as much money re-selling waste in the form of usable products.

Process >

About 1950 – two groups of people who arrive in Cairo start to merge to become the collective Zabbaleen waste collectors.

1980 – the city government of Cairo begins to help in waste management and helps to improve the standard of living and recycling methods of the Zabbaleen along with help from other organizations.

1998 – the Zabbaleen win an award from the UN in recognition of their work. Similar waste collections methods are applied in Manila and Mumbai.

2003 – the Egyptian Government announces plans to “modernize” or “westernise” the waste collection system and hires three European garbage companies.

2004 – due to failure on the part of the garbage companies to successfully hire the Zabbaleen and subsequent monetary complications with the Egyptian government, the “modernised” waste collection system collapsed.

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